SparseDays

Fifteen years ago we lived near Toulouse for the six months of my first sabbatical so it was appropriate that this morning I took the familiar walk to the research lab I worked in during that earlier stay. I saw thus guy staring into the distance, and when I walked up behind him I saw why. These pines with their huge cones are a wonderful feature of the area. I was attending the first day of a two-day workshop called SparseDays, so it should have been interesting for SparseRunner. However, the subject of sparse numerical linear algebra has moved on a lot in the past 15 years, and there are no longer big simple new ideas for people to talk about, so I soon found myself lost in most of the talks. As always, it was good to meet people, though.